Easter Prayer of Pope St. Gregory (540-604 AD) It is only right, with all the powers of our heart and mind, to praise You Father and Your Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Dear Father, by Your wondrous condescension of Loving-Kindness toward us, Your servants, You gave up Your Son. Dear Jesus You...
This is a reflection on the readings for Easter Sunday, The Resurrection of the Lord, The Mass of Easter Day. It’s hard to imagine the devastation Jesus’ disciples must have felt the day he was crucified. While we read the Gospels with post-Resurrection lenses, knowing what happens after Jesus’ death, they experienced it...
In his Easter Vigil homily tonight at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis once again emphasized the theme of amazement that has characterized Holy Week this year. He describes the amazement of the women who discovered the empty tomb as “a fear mingled with joy that took their hearts by surprise when they...
“Judas was a zealot and he wanted a victorious Messiah who would lead a revolt against the Romans. Jesus had not measured up to these expectations. The problem was that Judas did not go away and his greatest sin was his deceitfulness, which is the mark of the Devil. For this reason Jesus...
When one thinks of the threads of continuity across the last three papacies, perhaps one of the most overlooked—yet uniquely influential—is Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap., who has served as Preacher to the Papal Household since his appointment by Pope John Paul II in 1980, and who was appointed to the College of...
“Jesus was lifted high on the cross in order to descend to the abyss of our suffering. He experienced our deepest sorrows: failure, loss of everything, betrayal by a friend, even abandonment by God. By experiencing in the flesh our deepest struggles and conflicts, he redeemed and transformed them.” — Pope Francis, March...
Introduction — Fr. Alex Roche In June of 2017 Pope Francis visited the small village of Bozzolo in the Diocese of Cremona, located in northern Italy’s Po Valley. The images of a Roman Pontiff visiting the little town of 5,000 provided a snapshot into a papacy that has often pivoted away from the...
When I prepared my Holy Thursday homily last year, the pandemic was raging, public liturgies were suspended, everybody participated online, there was no washing of feet, and—besides the celebrant—no one received the bread and wine of the Last Supper. As I prepared this homily, we are in church, we are as a gathered...
Special Holy Week edition of WPI Live TONIGHT, Wednesday, March 31st! Join Rachel Amiri, Mike Lewis, Melinda Ribnek and first-time guest Nathan Turowsky at 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific. Streaming right here or on YouTube and our Facebook page. We will be talking about vulnerability and Christ’s sharing in our weakness and pain...
With the Holy Triduum forthcoming, the prayer of Jesus prior to his arrest is timely for our contemplation: “I pray…that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:20-21)....
[Editor’s note: On Sunday, March 28, Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn gave an in-depth interview on the Austrian television network ORF. During the program, he spoke for a second time about the recent CDF statement on blessings for same-sex couples in the Catholic Church (Click here for our translation of his March 24 interview)....
I was overcome with unexpected emotion at Palm Sunday Mass this week. It has been a year since Covid-19 interrupted our lives. I thought about our family’s last Palm Sunday, when the pandemic had just begun. That day, we collected a few palm leaves from around our neighborhood (one of the perks of...
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